Northern Europe
The ancient Norse and Germanic peoples believed in a flat-Earth cosmography with the Earth surrounded by an ocean, with the axis mundi, a world tree (Yggdrasil), or pillar (Irminsul) in the centre.[47][48] In the world-encircling ocean sat a snake called Jormungandr.[49] The Norse creation account preserved in Gylfaginning (VIII) states that during the creation of the Earth, an impassable sea was placed around it:[50]
And Jafnhárr said: "Of the blood,
East Asia
Further information: Chinese astronomy
In ancient China, the prevailing belief was that the Earth was flat and square, while the heavens were round,[52] an assumption virtually unquestioned until the introduction of European astronomy in the 17th century.[53][54][55] The English sinologist Cullen emphasizes the point that there was no concept of a round Earth in ancient Chinese astronomy:[6]